Hi, I've dug through the Internet trying to find more information on a TV from the Philips 1966 I think teak look advertisement, the TVs was called Polaris, it had: 25 inch screen, magnascope CRT, magic eye tuner or something like that. I wondered if anybody has any information on the set or ant other pictures of it, thanks!

Hi Ryanbrownin

If this was an Aussie TV and you are sure about the year, then it would have had a 9000 series chassis, probably 94xx. The 95xx appeared in 1966, it had AF117 germanium transistors in the sound IF. Not a bad chassis, it predates the Decal valves that appeared in the following (single PCB) 11000 series chassis. The company I worked for in the late 60s had lots of these sets in their rental fleet. They were base models, 23", the older 9000 series sets had grey vinyl covered cabinets, the 11000 series were teak.

I don't recall seeing a "magic eye" in an oz Philips TV. Some earlier models (ca 1960) had a projection system for the channel number with a drum and a plastic lens. There was a feature called something like magnascope in the 7000 series - this was the first chassis to be used with a 25" CRT. The actual function was dynamic focus - there was a circuit that modulated the focus voltage to achieve correct focus over the entire screen. Nice. Too subtle for most of the punters, it was dropped in the 8000 series, that was in about 1964. The name "polaris" (which sounds vaguely familiar) probably referred to a cabinet style. They did use names like that.

Hope some of this helps.

Are you looking for one or have one you want to restore?

Polaris was a sales name and only appears on sales brochures and advertising which makes it hard to figure out which model it refers to.

There is a Philips model 11614 (manual control) and 11624 (remote control) that was referred to as the "Polaris". It was on sale mid 1966 and used the 11 series chassis. The magic eye you are thinking of was a light dependent resistor that measured ambient light levels for auto contrast control.

I've attached a period advertisement for this model. It should appear in a day or two.

Good work with the guessing, looks like the same ad in both pictures.

That is the exact same ad, I just googled the model number you provided and got some more info on the TV. Does anyone have this model?

I have a similar model from a year later that uses the same chassis but has different case styling. I haven't seen either of the Polaris models or know of anyone with one. The only pictures of the set are those in ads or sales brochures and service manuals.

What specifically do you want to know about the set? I have all the service info if that's what you're interested in.

What I specifically want to know is the dimensions of the cabinet, do you have them?

I did some digging amongst my documentation and found the case dimensions. They are:
Width - 40 inches
Depth - 17 inches
Height - 32 inches (includes leg height of 11 inches)

Set uses two 8 x 4 inch speakers.